Step One: Feed the body. (Kale)

[Pierce Tondry]

Time: 0600

Place: Jedi Temple, Coruscant. Padawan quarters.

Rap! Rap! Rap!

"Kale, get up!"

[Kale]

The knock at the door was just a distant tapping in Kale's dreams. He flinched, grumbled subconsciously, then rolled over and clutched his pillow tighter.

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce scowled. "Door override Tondry 8Z7X."

The lock flashed to green and Pierce opened the door. He marched into the bedroom, turned on the light, and yanked the covers off of Kale's sleeping form. "Wake up Padawan!" he shouted. "Time to earn your keep!"

[Kale]

"Yah!"

Kale jolted out of his blissful slumber, scrambling backward away from the sudden blast of noise. He only got about eight inches before he knocked his head against the back wall and thumped back down onto his mattress.

Wincing, he sat up slowly and blinked at the intruder as his sleep-blurred eyes began to adjust to the light.

"Tond--"

His brain kicked in just in time.

"Master Tondry? What are you doin' here? It's only..."

He glanced at the wall clock.

"Six? Aw, dangit."

He rolled off his bed--he'd slept in the same baggy pair of jeans he'd worn the previous day--grabbed a rumpled tunic from the floor and pulled it over his narrow shoulders, then snatched a pair of socks from his open whites drawer and tugged them on while he hobbled over to his sneakers on the other side of the bed.

"Sorry, I, uh... I ain't been sleepin' too well," he mumbled.

[Pierce Tondry]

"You'll sleep just fine tonight, after what I intend to put you through." Kale found a sweatband in his face. "You'll need that. Now come on."

Pierce turned and walked out of Kale's room, leaving his Padawan to try and catch up.

[Kale]

Kale's reflexes had yet to fully wake up. The sweatband bounced off his forehead as he bent to tie his sneakers, and, by the time he looked up, Pierce was already disappearing out the door.

The teen hurried up with his other shoe, then snapped the elastic sweatband around his scalp, tightened the draw-belt on his tunic, and scampered out after his master, wondering all the while just what he was in for.

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce had already reached a turbolift. He waited inside the lift for Kale to catch up, then the two of them rode the lift upwards in silence. When they reached the top, the lift doors opened and the two of them stepped out.

On to the roof.

A chill but not unbearable wind gusted through Kale's clothes. Pierce was dressed in more form-fitting garb, but the cold did not seem to touch him.

He pointed ahead of them. "Twenty jumping jacks, now," he ordered.

[Kale]

Kale still felt half-asleep as the lift hurtled skyward, but the bite of the brisk air blew away some of the cobwebs. He rubbed at the sleeves of his tunic--it didn't seem to present much of an obstacle to the wind--but there was no point in fussing over it. The Coruscant streets were cold at night, and he'd felt far worse in the glacial mines on Kuwaruk Re. He could take a little nippy air.

Jumping jacks... okay, he could do that.

Without a word, Kale stepped out onto the roof and started--a little slow at first, but he quickly picked up the pace.

Eighteen, nineteen, twenty.

Ah, good, he was starting to warm up now.

[Pierce Tondry]

"That was sloppy," Pierce replied. He crossed his arms. "Twenty more. Full extension of the arms and legs."

[Kale]

Kale raised an eyebrow. "Oh... okay."

He did three more experimentally, trying to extend more this time.

"Like that?"

[Pierce Tondry]

"Better. Now, give me twenty more of those."

[Kale]

Kale wrinkled his nose. "Huh? I already did three."

[Pierce Tondry]

"Thirty more."

[Kale]

Kale's mouth came open. "Y--"

And just as quickly, it shut.

And he did thirty more.

[Pierce Tondry]

"Count to sixty."

[Kale]

Fifty-three jumping jacks, and Kale was starting to sweat. It shouldn't have fazed him that much, but he'd been lounging around the Temple too long.

"Sixty?" he said. "You mean out loud?"

Well... it seemed fairly self-evident. He didn't know what the point was, but he started counting.

"One, two, three, four..."

[Pierce Tondry]

When Kale had finished, Pierce pointed at the ground. "Twenty push-ups, now."

[Kale]

Suddenly, Kale wished he had counted a little slower. If Pierce was planning to keep this up all day... well... it'd be a very long day.

Grimacing, he got down on his chest and started grunting out some push-ups. He was naturally limber, but he'd never had much upper-body strength. And by ten, he had a sneaking suspicion he was doing something wrong again. But he finished them out and looked up at his master. "How's that?"

[Pierce Tondry]

"You need more precision," Pierce stated. "Feet together, do not arch your back. Keep arms spread as wide as you can. Twenty more."

[Kale]

An aggravated sigh escaped Kale's lips as he repositioned himself. Sharkey had done push-ups every night in the room--he wanted to keep himself fit enough to impress the bosses. The only things Kale used to lift were wallets, so he'd never been particularly interested.

Arms apart, feet together, back straight... Annnnnnnd down, and up, and down, and up, and down...

Man, he should've been lifting some heavier wallets.

"Twenty!" he grunted.

[Pierce Tondry]

"Better," Pierce said. "Go faster on the lifts, and slower on your descent. Twenty more."

[Kale]

And there was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back, and it was about to break the slightly less proverbial Padawan's back.

"Twenty more?" Kale erupted. "I've done forty already!"

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce's expression started still as stone back in the bedroom, and even Kale's outburst did not cause it to change. "So you think you can't?"

[Kale]

Kale wasn't quite prepared for that sort of response. It was hard to think fast with one's belly to the ground.

"Well... not right now! My arms are burnin'. Maybe if I just take another sixty seconds. "

[Pierce Tondry]

"Take thirty seconds. It's best not to lose your momentum in mid-exercise."

[Kale]

Kale decided not to protest this time--he'd rather take his thirty seconds than risk getting thirty push-ups.

"It's a deal."

He got up on his knees and rubbed down his upper arms while his mental clock ticked away. He caught his breath quickly, but now he was feeling every bruise from yesterday when Rognan fell off the wall and square onto his back.

The thirty seconds passed faster than Kale would have liked, but he got back down onto the rooftop with only a little grimace. He set himself, stopped, reset himself the way Pierce had told him, and tried to get it right this time.

Dooowwwnn, up, doowwwnn, up, doooowwwnn, up...

They were harder this way. By the time he hit twenty, he felt like he did after the last forty.

[Pierce Tondry]

"Good job," Pierce complimented. "Take sixty, and then we'll start push-ups."

[Kale]

Kale thudded down onto the rooftop, then lifted himself to his knees and set his hands on his hips. His arms were still burning, but hopefully that meant he'd accomplished something. Still, he couldn't help wondering when they were going to start doing more Jedi... ish... stuff.

"Start push-ups?" he repeated, puzzled. "You mean do more?"

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce smirked, pulling his jacket off to reveal a simple tank top. "I mean, I will do push-ups with you sitting on my back."

He did a few twists and stretches, allowing Kale to continue his count.

[Kale]

Sixteen... seventeen... eighteen...

"Uh... okay. Just so you don't expect me to swap places with you when you're done."

Kale gave a shadow of a smile and kept the count going as Coruscant wheeled on around them. The sun hadn't risen over the horizon yet, but a high-altitude torrent of traffic was already reflecting its garish red rays. Soon the city smog would begin to catch the sunlight and split it into vibrant yellows, reds, and purples. It had been a long time since Kale had watched a sunrise. You never saw them in the twilight region.

"That's sixty," Kale said.

[Pierce Tondry]

Abruptly, Pierce dropped to the floor in the rest position of a push-up. "Get on my back and sit crosslegged. I want you to be in as stable a position as possible."

[Kale]

"All righty..."

Once Pierce was settled, Kale approached him, swallowed back a bit of the awkwardness, and sat straddling his Master's back. Bracing himself on the rooftop, he crossed his legs and did his best to balance his weight on top of Pierce's own center of gravity.

"That work for you? Or do you want me to take my shoes off?"

Though, considering the last time Kale did laundry, Pierce would probably prefer he keep his socks covered.

[Pierce Tondry]

"No," Pierce said in a vaguely distant tone. "I'd prefer you keep your socks covered."

On that note, Pierce pushed up off the ground. Kale wobbled a bit, but remained steady on his back. Pierce did several more repititions, quickly acquiring a feel for what threw Kale's weight off and what didn't.

His pattern was simple: push up, breathe out, relax, breathe in. Pierce owed his exercise precision and stamina to long years of military service.

Very quickly losing himself in the rhythmic feel of his own life Force, Pierce had sixty push-ups done almost before he was aware. On the last one, he lowered himself to the ground. "Off, please."

[Kale]

Kale wasn't sure whether Tondry was showing off or what--though, by forty-five, he was wondering when his Master was going to stop.

So he kept bobbing up and down with Pierce. He lost interest in watching the rooftop bounce, so he started glancing about at the surrounding cityscape. The sun was rising in the East now, and the fire in the sky was reflected across acres of plasteel and duracrete.

Off? Oh, off.

Kale's legs were just a little wobbly as he rolled off his Master's back and got to his feet--his inner ears were still bouncing up and down for a moment.

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce pushed onto the toes of his feet, then snapped up straight. "You're lighter than I'm used to. I'll have to catch up with more weight later."

"Time for crunches," Pierce gesturing at the ground. "You ever done those?"

[Kale]

"Uhh..."

Kale vaguely remembered Sharkey doing those, too. They were sort of like half of a sit-up...

"Maybe you'd better tell me how. You know, just in case."

Kale figured it was in his interest to do it right the first time.

[Pierce Tondry]

"Lie on the ground as though you were going to do a sit-up," Pierce instructed. "Plant your feet about shoulder-width apart. Place your hands behind your head. Now, bend forward while keeping the lower half of your back on the floor. I'll stop you when you've gone far enough- there. That's how far you want to bend on each repetition. As you reach that point, bear down with your abdomenal muscles. Then lower yourself back to the floor and repeat. Do thirty."

[Kale]

Kale nodded and got down on his back. Crunches weren't that bad. There was just a bit of sizzle in his abs when he'd finished. Not to mention a fair crop of sweat on his brow. Up until now, Kale's main source of exercise had been the necessity escaping unwanted attention. He could already put enough wind in his lungs to keep him running hard through back alleys and crowded streets, but once he'd built a little muscular endurance, these calisthenics would get a lot easier.

[Pierce Tondry]

"Not bad," Pierce said, ticking something away on his fingertips. "I want you to do thirty more when I finish counting. A lot of people find sixty crunches to be too much on their first exercise session, so if you can't I won't fault you. Just do what you can."

[Kale]

By the time Pierce finished, Kale had his breath back. But the second set of crunches proved more difficult than the first. The sizzle in his abdomen became a knot by the time he got to ten, and he fought it all the way to nineteen. Twenty was elusive. His legs came up, but he forced them back down and did it again.

Kale's rhythm was shot now, but he grunted up to twenty-one and twenty-two. At twenty-four, he really was grunting--every crunch was a snarl, and every release was a gasp. But he squeezed out two, three more. Now he just had to focus on twenty-eight... or was it twenty-nine?

Whatever it was, it never quite came. His shoulders lifted meagerly off the rooftop, then slumped back down.

"Whew," he huffed. "I hope that gets easier."

[Pierce Tondry]

"It will eventually." Pierce extended a hand to pull Kale to his feet. "Get up and stretch out a little bit."

[Kale]

Kale's stomach rebelled at the swift change in orientation after the crunches--not enough to bring up dinner, but enough to make him woozy for a moment. He waved off any concern from his master; he didn't want to appear any more pathetic than he already did. He stretched out his arms, and one of his elbows popped significantly--a remnant of an old injury. Other than that, Kale was fairly flexible.

"So... how many more of these things are we doin' today?"

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce couldn't help but smile at Kale's resilience. "No more exercise for the moment. I just wanted to get you started. The routines will be increasingly more difficult as we go along."

Pierce stopped, then started again. "Do you understand why I'm having you do this?"

[Kale]

Kale furrowed his brow and rubbed his stomach gingerly.

"Uh... to get me in shape, I thought."

[Pierce Tondry]

"That's the obvious reason," Pierce said. "Go one further. Why do you need to be in shape?"

[Kale]

Uh... he'd thought it was fairly obvious. Jedi needed to be in shape, didn't they?

"So I can... fight? Run faster? Get out of trouble?"

He watched Pierce's face for hints.

[Pierce Tondry]

Somehow, Kale had to understand the reason Jedi stayed fit. "Kale," Pierce began. "You ever wake up with an ache or cramp that didn't quite go away?"

[Corias Bonaventure]

Yoy and double yoy. Wrong account.

[Kale]

He rubbed his back where Rognan's head had imprinted itself as a result of yesterday's imbroglio. Of course, the bruise would be gone in a day or two. He'd had his share of knocks and sprains and twists and breaks in the past.

"Um... Yeah."

[Pierce Tondry]

"And when tried to focus on things, that cramp was a real distraction, wasn't it?"

[Kale]

Kale thought he knew where Pierce was going with this. Well, he had a guess. An inkling. Er... actually, he wasn't really sure.

"Yeah."

[Pierce Tondry]

"Sensing the Force requires a lot of focus. A lot. If you were plagued by constant aches and pains, how well do you think you'd be able to focus?"

[Kale]

Focus... that had been tough for Kale lately. So he could certainly understand his master's point.

"Yeah... yeah, I know what you mean," he said, sorta distantly.

[Pierce Tondry]

"I don't think you do, not yet," Pierce shook his head. "But after a couple of weeks worth of fitness training, I think you'll notice a difference in your energy level. Your mind will work more clearly, too. The ability to lift a one-ton bomb with a group of similarly fit beings and carry it to a waiting transport will just be a beneficial side effect."

[Kale]

Beneficial side effect? Kale couldn't help smirking at the thought.

"I'll have to take your word for it on the bomb part. At least... well... I hope so."

His thoughts hovered back toward his brief conversation with the other Padawan yesterday. Should he tell Pierce about it now, or wait until they had a Force lesson?

Well, Kale had said he'd tell his master if the subject came up. It didn't look like the subject was up yet.

Kale finished stretching out and cricked his spine for good measure. "I could use a drink of water," he said. "Are we done up here?"

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce laughed heartily. "Well, you are. I have other exercises to do. Go shower and get dressed, then the two of us will catch a meal."

For the Jedi, it was time to eat as well.